Electronic records not up to par

The Department of Defense’s $4 billion electronic health record system, AHLTA, is so unreliable and difficult to use that military physicians list it among their top three reasons for leaving service.

That fact came to light during a House armed services subcommittee hearing last week in which senior medical officers and top DoD health officials described the problem-plagued system and the latest plans to reform it.

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, Army surgeon general, blamed AHLTA’s failures on “lack of a clear, actionable strategy and poor execution” from its inception.